Chemistry

Surface and Polymer Chemistry

We are exploring numerous approaches to derivatize, modify, conjugate, enhance, and/or passivate surfaces, biomolecules, microbeads, and nanoparticles. Examples of this can be seen in our microbead arrays, in which a glass coverslip derivatized with biotin moieties is used to capture a streptavidin-coated microbead conjugated to DNA molecules. This type of platform can support a wide variety of applications such as DNA sequencing, genotyping, and DNA-protein interaction studies. The surface chemistry plays a crucial role in our detection schemes by minimizing non-specific binding and thus increasing sensitivity.